Whack and Stack: 2010 Marijuana Cultivation Eradication In America

[Editor’s note: Call it a terrible waste of police time, an unnecessary risk to law enforcement personnels’ lives, a loud and destructive invasion of one’s curtilage, the proverbial taxpayer-funded pursuit of a needle in a haystack, an unintended government-provided price support for an illegal and untaxed commercial market, or a bizarre police ruse where a valuable agricultural product—industrial hemp; which is even subsidized by the European Union to cultivate as an industrial fiber crop—is paraded out in front of unknowing (or not…) media who dutifully snap photos, capture video and write about any one law enforcement project involved in regional domestic cannabis eradication as being ‘successful’.

Call it what ever you choose, but it is that time of year again to see where and in what quantities the DEA claims it whacks and stacks outdoor and indoor cannabis eradicated within America’s borders, even though, as noted below, the DEA stopped honestly reporting the ratio of World War II-era feral hemp eradicated to actual cultivated cannabis plants (for recreational or medical uses) in 2006.]

by Matthew Donigian, NORML legal intern, University of Illinois — College of Law

In the most recent DEA Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program Statistical Report, the DEA indicated that over 10 million marijuana plants throughout the United States were destroyed by the agency. According to this report, most of the eradicated plants were found in California, followed by West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Washington State. The states with the least eradicated plants were Rhode Island, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Delaware.

The report also detailed the number of eradicated plants that were being cultivated indoors. The states with the highest number of eradicated indoor plants were California, Florida, Washington, Michigan, and Ohio. California is the obvious leader here, since its highly successful medical marijuana market has been the primary target of DEA operations. However, proponents of merciless penalties for cultivation of marijuana in Florida may be surprised to see the state in the number two spot, ahead of both Michigan and Washington State, two of the largest medical marijuana jurisdictions. It seems that the policy touted by supporters as the silver bullet to large-scale marijuana production in the state has failed.

This should not come as a surprise to those familiar with the rhetoric supporting the failed War on Drugs. For the past 40 years, the federal government has promised decreased crime, overdose deaths, and addiction rates as a result of the punitive and prohibitive approach of the war and drugs, but has failed to deliver these results. In 2009, Florida drastically increased its penalties for cultivation of marijuana, which punish the cultivation of 25 or more marijuana plants with up to 15 years of imprisonment. Much like federal marijuana prohibition, increasing penalties in Florida in order to decrease cultivation has been an abject failure. In the most recent DEA eradication report, Florida ranked second in eradicated indoor marijuana plants, with 51,366 plants eradicated in 2010, only 1265 fewer plants than were eradicated per year from 1998-2008 (on average). In addition there were nearly 500 more arrests associated with marijuana eradication in 2010 than there were on average between the years of 1998-2008.

In addition, since 2006, the report excludes statistics on the number of “ditchweed” or non-cultivated feral marijuana plants, eradicated each year. According to the DEA, eradication of ditchweed is still taking place but the agency refrains from reporting the number of eradicated plants, making it difficult to estimate the resources spent on this practice. The federal government seems to have misinterpreted criticism that the practice was a waste of resources; critics were not upset with the governments reporting of “ditchweed”, but rather the practice of seeking out and burning non-smokeable and non-cultivated cannabis plants. The last published eradication data for “ditchweed” indicated that over 200 million or 98 percent of all plants eradicated were feral marijuana. The current practice of non-reporting provides the American people with little information on where DEA resources are being utilized, and effectively hides the amount of money spent on an unintelligible practice.

This week we’re going to check in with Jorge Cervantes; world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation. Jorge has over 30 years of expert cannabis growing knowledge and hands-on experience. He is also the author of several books and DVDs including the infamous Marijuana Horticulture: Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible. Jorge shows us the male cannabis plant dispersing pollen up close in this video. If you grow from seed or are curious about male plants and breeding, this video should be of particular interest to you. Check it out!

To me there is nothing like the flavor of properly grown organic cannabis. The subtle flavors and aromas created when using mother earth is over whelming to the senses when done properly.

As with many vegetables a rich Organic soil can bring out the best in a plant. Over the past 20 years I have tried almost every possible way to cultivate our favorite plant and while hydro is certainly faster and the yields blow soil away, I have developed a soil that performs extremely well and there’s very little guess work. I don’t worry about ph or ppm I simply have spent a few years developing a sound recipe and in combination with 7 gallon nursery pots I can run from start to finish using only water. Other than a bit of sweat equity every 90 days or so it takes a huge amount of science out of the garden and puts nature back in charge. This recipe is slightly different from my last and from the one so many use as gospel that I have passed around for years from grower to grower.

I always start with at least 6-8 large bags of high quality organic soil. The selection of your base soil is very important so don’t cut corners here. I cannot begin to discuss all the different products but I will discuss a few in this article. A good Organic soil should cost between 8-10$ per 30# bag. I want you to get a real good idea what I consider a balanced soil to be so take a look at the ingredients of a product called Roots Organic:

I have always believed in giving my plants a wide range of soils and additives I figure it’s like a buffet they get all they need

“Lignite, also known as leonardite, mined lignin, brown coal, and slack, is an important constituent to the oil well, drilling industry. Lignite, or leonardite as it will be referred as hereafter, is technically known as a low rank coal between peat and sub-bituminous. Leonardite was named for Dr. A.G. Leonard, North Dakota’s first state geologist, who was a pioneer in the study of lignite deposits. Leonardite is applied to products having a high content of humic acid. Humic acid has been found to be very useful as a drilling mud thinner.”

The Roots produced a more floral smell in the finished flowers while the Harvest Moon generated larger yields.

If you have access to a good local mix like these then I highly recommend starting with these type products. We have also had decent results using commercial brands as well but not as is. The best results we have seen from well known soil that is available nationwide is Fox Farms “Ocean Forrest” soil combined in a 2-1 ratio with Light Warrior. On it’s own the Ocean Forrest is known for burning plants and having the wrong ratio’s of nutrients but when cut down with Light Warrior it makes a pretty good mix for a base soil.

You can also just use 2 bales of Sunshine mix #4 but this is my last choice and plants growing in this may not complete properly with this “Just add water” method of soil growing. The concept to this concentrated soil is to not have to worry with mixing up nutrients after the soil is made. The concentrate is placed in the bottom ¼ to ½ of the container and blended with base soil. This allows the plants to grow into the strong concentrated soil and in the right size container need nothing else but water throughout the full harvest cycle. With strains requiring high levels of nutrients we go as strong as ¾ of the container with Super Soil but this is only with a small percentage of strains.

Here are the amounts we have found that produce the best tasting buds and strongest medicines.

8- Large bags of High quality Organic potting soil with a coco and Mycorrhizae

This is the same basic recipe I have used for 15 years the hardest ingredient to acquire is the worm castings most people don’t even know what it is. Be resourceful and find it worms make up ¾ of the living organisms underground btw and hold our planet together.

Be careful not to waste money on Soil Conditioner with worm casting but local Pure Worm poop with no added mulch.

There are several methods of mixing this up well.

You can sweep off a patio or garage and work there on a tarp.

You can use a kids plastic wading pool these cost about 10$ and work really well for a few seasons.

Some growers have been known to rent a cement mixer and cut down on the physical labor. As long as you get the ingredients mixed up properly that is all that matters.

This can be a lot of work so don’t pull a muscle if your not used to strenuous activity. This method is good for mind and body. Working with soil keeps me in pretty good shape, but if you have limitations you can simply have someone mix it up for you while you supervise. One of the things I like about this method is I can drop of plants to a patient and all they have to do is water the plants when the soil dries out.

Place a few bags of base soil in first making a mound. I then place the powdered nutrients in a circle around the mound and then cover with another bag of base soil.

Then goes in the bat poop and then more base soil. I continue to layer soil and additives until everything has been added to the pile. So now I put on the muck boots, these help me kick the soil around and get it mixed up well using my larger leg muscles and not my back and arms. Then it’s as simple as my Skipper used to say “ Put your back into it”. This is hard work that I obsess on, even breaking up all the clods of soil by hand. I mix for about 15 minutes, turning the pile over and over until it is mixed well. I store the mix in large garbage cans. Before using the mix the entire load is poured out once more and mixed well. Once placed in the containers I water it slightly adding 3 gallons of water to a large garbage can full. It will make the stirring harder next week but it will activate the Mycorrhizae and I think help all the powders dissolve.

So now we add water and let it cook in the sunshine. 30 days is best for this concentrate.

Do not put seeds or clones directly in this mix. It is an advanced mix used in conjunction with base soil. It is used to place in the bottom of each finishing container and fully rooted established clones are placed in a bed of base soil that is layered on top of the concentrate. As the plants grow they slowly push their roots into the super soil drawing up all nutrients needed for a full cycle. The Super Soil can be used also to top dress plants that take longer to mature.

I will use this mix for a full year just adding like 30-50% in the lower potion of the container and plain base soil in the top portion.

Buds from this method finish with a fade and a smoother fruity flavor. The plants are not green when done but Purple, Red, Orange and even Black at times. The resin content is heavier and the terpins always seem to be more pungent.

This method is used my medical growers all over with amazing results. The feed back I receive is really positive with reports of Hydro-like growth and novice growers producing buds of the same quality as life long growers.

Howdy fellow HMJane-ers! Welcome to your FIRST stealth grow installment with ME, ThisBuds4You!!! I will show you how I made a STEALTH chest of drawers (dresser) for less than $150 and YOU CAN TOO. In 3 months you will be puffin’ on your own homegrown for less than the cost of a half ounce of herb. A little know how, a couple tools and a few items from your neighborhood hardware supplier and you’ll be growing in no time! This box should produce 5-6 ounces of A-Quality bud every grow cycle (60 days). This box also uses only 300 watts of power, about the same amount as a standard desktop computer.

Details about this dresser

It took 2 -8 hour days to complete this grow box. This dresser is comprised of 2 growing chambers, 1 for flowering your buds and the other for keeping your mother plant and young clones. The mother plant and clones are kept under 24-18 hours of light and your flowering plants are under 12 hours of light. I used 250 actual watts of power in the flowering chamber. This should give us around 5-6 ounces of bud every grow cycle (60 days) depending on the strain, nutrients, grow medium, etc. I will get into nutrients, caring for your plants, etc in future articles. Alright, enough talk, lets get growing!!!

If you don’t have all the tools, BORROW THEM FROM YOUR FRIENDS & FAMILY! If they ask you why you need them, make up some bullshit! I didn’t want to spend $20 on a hole saw drill bit so I borrowed it, just ask!

1 carbon scrubber (i got the smallest one CAN FILTER makes) – $39.00 if you are concerned about odor, this is a MUST

Money Saving Tips

1. Re-purpose the wood from inside the dresser! I got an old ass dresser that was probably hand-built by some old pioneer and I was able to reuse a lot of the wood. I only had to purchase 1 new piece of wood (the MDF) for the back door.

2. Get an old junked computer and use the fans and power supply from that, you can probably find one for free, I did.

3. Check the free section of craiglist for dressers, computers, etc. If you can’t find free ones, pretty sure you can find cheap ones. I got my dresser for $30.

4. Don’t pay for lamp cords! Find some old ass lamps in the garbage, free section of craigslist or whatever and use those. Just cut them off from the lamp and wa la!

Disassembling the dresser
Take great care in taking the dresser apart. We took time taking it apart and ended up being able to reuse most of the wood from the dresser. We took apart the drawers and used the bottoms to make the front face that the drawer fronts attached to. We also used the bottom of the drawers for the floors of our new grow box.

Now, I’m not going to get into too much detail from here on out; the pictures are pretty self-explanatory. If you’ve got any questions, feel free to fire away!

The Beginning
Here’s the dresser untouched

Dresser untouched

First, we took all the drawers out and began to take those apart with a rubber mallet

Drawer dis-assembly

Drawer dis-assembly

Here’s the dresser completely gutted (except for the top shelf, I left that in so we could mount the exhaust fans and run the power through there)

Dresser gutted

Then we attached one of the drawer bottoms to the front of the dresser, so we would have something to screw the drawer fronts to

Dresser with support board

Then we attached the drawer fronts with the new drawer handles/pulls

Dresser with drawers attached

Once that was completed we cut a 6″ hole on the inside top shelf we left in and we also added a partition wall in the middle with a hole cut out for a 120 mm fan. We also cut holes in the top of our flowering chamber for the 2-120mm fans we will mount there. Be sure to run caulk around the edges on the inside of the dresser so we don’t have an issue with light leaks. I also cut 4 pieces of wood the same depth as the dresser and screwed them into the bottom. These are going to support our new floors.

Boards mounted, holes cut

Partition wall with hole cut

Next, make your floors from the scrap drawer bottoms. I drilled holes in them with a 2″ hole saw bit for air flow. Air is your best friend in these small spaces! I lined the floor of the veg room with panda film, I’m making a separate tray to place the plants in the flowering area so I did not line that floor with panda film

Vegetative chamber floor

Flowering chamber floor

Next, line the entire interior of the dresser with panda film and install the floors

Dresser lined with Panda film

Now, time for the lights. I daisy-chained all the lights together and mounted them to some scrap 1/2″ board I had laying around. You can use pieces of the dresser drawers for this also.

Ceramic fixtures

Lamp cord plug

Break time with Sweetwater 420 and Mandala Hashberry

Break Time

Now for the fans, I used 3-120 mm fans. I’m using 2 in the ceiling to exhaust hot air out of the flowering chamber (the lights will be sealed off by a piece of plexi glass), and 1 fan will be blowing air from the flowering chamber into the veg chamber. I powered these fans with a PC power supply. I got a power supply tester so the power supply would power the fans.

120mm fans

Power supply with tester

Now, mount the fans and the lights. I mounted 2-80 mm computer fans in the corners of the flowering box, air flow is our best friend in these small spaces!

Lights and fans mounted

Exhaust fans for lights in flowering chamber

PC fans mounted, exhaust fans for flowering chamber lights

Hinges attached to door

Hinges attached

Magnetic closures attached

Vegetative chamber up and running!!!

Flowering chamber with plexi glass installed
Lights on!

Flowering chamber with plexi glass installed

Door installed on back of dresser, still need to get a piece of hardboard to attach across the top of the back…

Medical Marijuana Inc is pleased to announce completion of a draft for a preliminary petition to the Federal Government to obtain a DEA sanctioned License to cultivate marijuana for medicinal purposes. In the US there are now 15 States which recognize the medicinal benefits of marijuana and cannabis related products (containing THC, the psycho-active ingredient) for various medical uses. Connecticut may soon be the 16th State to approve medical marijuana.

The Drug Enforcement Administration told Legalization Nation in an e-mail last week that 5 unnamed companies now hold licenses to grow cannabis in the United States. The DEA and enforcement agencies are examining a potential expansion of the medical marijuana industry along with a new acceptance by the Federal Government of the medical benefits. Nationwide, increasing numbers of Doctors are prescribing marijuana and related products for their patients and seeing their patients receiving benefit.

To further illustrate this expansion, (via a letter to the East Bay Express) the DEA revealed that “there are 64 active DEA registrations” (reflecting 55 companies) for manufacturers that have listed drug code 7370 (THC, Delta-8 THC, Delta-9 THC, dronabinol and others) and drug code 7371(TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL, ORGANIC) on their DEA record. In other words, 55 companies have active licenses for producing organic THC (meaning they are growing medicinal marijuana). These reports contradict the widespread belief that there is only one legal marijuana farm in America, operated under the DEA for research purposes.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers are watching this emerging trend of medicinal marijuana benefits to patients in the hope of bringing generic THC products to new market. For Pharmaceutical companies to bring generic THC products to market, the DEA would have to move organic THC down from Schedule I, where it is now, to a Schedule III classification, the same level of synthetic THC (Marinol). According to DEA records, pharmaceutical companies have requested just such a rescheduling. Should this rescheduling occur, it would green-light a new generation of prescription marijuana extract-to-pill farms.

The federal government has reportedly boosted its marijuana production capability by 900 percent to 4.5 million grams, according documents obtained by Americans for Safe Access. The most famous federally approved pot grower, Dr. Mahmoud El Sohly, has also testified he has begun legally selling THC extracted from his Mississippi farm to a substantial drug company.

Medical Marijuana Inc realizes that “full transparency in this industry” is a must, especially for investors in the growing number of publicly traded companies’ shares in the industry. MJNA and CannaBANK seek to provide the public with information on changing Governmental regulatory actions that may affect our businesses. As related in previous press releases, MJNA is dedicated to expanding available medical marijuana benefits to patients through science, such as its cannabinoid extraction process.

ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA INC

Our mission is to be the world’s premier cannabis and hemp industry innovators, leveraging our team of professionals to source, evaluate, invest in and purchase value-added sustainable companies, while allowing them to keep their integrity and entrepreneurial spirit. We strive to create awareness within our industry, pay homage to the visionaries and activists of the past and present, provide the platform from which the industry can emerge into a global sustainable economy for all. Medical Marijuana Inc recognizes the vast and unequaled opportunities that exist in the rapidly expanding hemp and medical marijuana industries. The scientific recognition of cannabis has brought legalized marijuana use to the forefront of mainstream discussion, thus opening the door for safe and lucrative investment opportunities.

In hopes of cracking down on illegal outdoor marijuana growers in Santa Barbara County, Sheriff’s Narcotics detectives are turning to the public for assistance. The Narcotics Division has received a federal grant to help it fund the production and distribution of fliers encouraging the public to help law enforcement officers identify and report non-medical marijuana producers.

Last year alone, the Sheriff’s Office destroyed more than 325,000 marijuana plants with a street value of more than $900,000,000, said spokesperson Drew Sugars.

The fliers explain what signs to look for when identifying someone who may be using forest or private land to cultivate marijuana. It is the hope of the detectives that by creating the fliers, they will not only educate people about illegal marijuana operations, but also minimize the danger to citizens and reduce environmental damage that can be attributed to unlawful marijuana growth.